tap water quality ?

[AngryScientist]

as cyclists and fitness enthusiasts - obviously water is key to hydrating during/after physical activity.

i've been on the road a lot lately, and i really hate the idea of buying bottled water, cost aside - it seems environmentally irresponsible. when i'm home and in known locations i just drink filtered tap water from my refrigerator and never give it a second guess.

speaking about inside the US here, what do you folks think about tap water, in general? i'm sitting in a hotel room on the Mex border, contemplating whether to grab another aquifina or just fill my stainless bottle from the hotel sink (it's hella HOT down here!)

i have yet to research this, but do you consider most domestic tap water inside the US acceptable, from a minimum standard for drinking?

the last thing i need is to get myself on a puking rally before getting on a plane.

rambling thoughts???

off to the bar, at least i'm certain that the Dewars wont kill me!

[CMiller]

Beer is safer!

If you're on the states side I wouldn't worry about it.

[CMiller]

Take my opinion with a grain of salt, I was raised in a family where eating food dropped on the floor meant building up my stomach for our summer trips to family in Peru.

[brownhound]

Yes. Same standards apply for bottled water as for tap, btw.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[bob heinatz]

Most is ok. But any type of filtering is a big plus. Just drink the beer there.

[Llewellyn]

I can't speak for the US, but I think our tap water here is fine and I refuse to buy bottled water unless there is no alternative, not only for environmental reasons but I think it's one of the biggest marketing con jobs around.

I get really annoyed when people here (my wife amongst them) complain about the quality of our tap water when hundreds of millions (probably billions) of people in the rest of the world don't have access to clean drinking water :mad:

[Satellite]

One of the biggest reasons I won't live anywhere else than Colorado Springs. The tap water is amazing here.

I would drink bottled water if your concerned about it. Error on the side of caution.

As for bottled water. I was on a business trip in Boston and the city drinking water was contaminated by lake water. I tried almost every kind of bottled water. My favorite by far was Aquafina.

When I travel home to see my parents I always load the car up with gallons of Colorado Springs water to get me through the visit.

Iam a water snob.

[onsight512]

filtered tap here in lala land.

[vav]

I'd rather drink tap from Mexico City than from NJ...:eek: :D

[Peter P.]

I recently read an article in the newspaper that said for the first time, the sales of bottled water have SURPASSED those of soft drinks. Can't remember whether that was in units or dollars, but nevertheless.

An associated article lists these 5 stats on why "tap water is the same or better in most U.S. locales".

1. Cost: $2 will get you 1,000 gallons of tap water. A single gallon of bottled water runs to $1.25.

2. Taste: Despite what some say, the taste is the same, in most places. Blind tests in U.S. cities have shown it. (Aside: Some bottled water companies do add trace minerals for taste.)

3. Health: The standards for bottled water are THE SAME as for tap water.

4. Environment: Only 30 percent of bottled water containers are recycled. Aside: This is my interest. I pick up trash in my local park weekly and am amazed at the quantity of bottled water containers I pick up. See my signature below and browse THIS (http://hubbardpark.blogspot.com/2015/05/bottled-water-follies.html) post.

5. Dubious Sales Pitch: Salon reports close to half of bottled water is just filtered tap water.

[paulh]

This is water regulates "tap water", meaning drinking water from community public water supplies. This is what gives citizens confidence to drink water from any city in the country without worry.

https://www.epa.gov/sdwa

The states run the program for the feds.

Notice it's EPA, so good luck with it going forward. 30% cuts?

[R3awak3n]

ny suppose to have amazing water, I still always filter mine before I drink it. Tastes great though, there are some places that the water tastes less than great.
I would be ok with just drinking from the tap here but we just always had a brita and so thats what we will keep doing.

[sales guy]

When I travel(a week at most now out of a month) and used to travel a lot more(3 weeks out of the month), I used to bring a small cooler with me with bottled water and soda. I'd load it up in the morning and fill it with ice and I'd be solid for the day. And even into the next morning. I know it's not responsible environmentally. But it is a ton more convenient when you are driving and don't want to stop all the time. I do recycle all the bottles tho. And actually at home, we recycle more than throw away trash. At home, I just drink filtered tap water. Ours is pretty good.

On a side note, get a water bottle with a filter. If it's really bugging you, that should help with the conscience.

[Mikej]

Flew here on a giant fuel burning aircraft, but this empty plastic bottle really bothers me...?

[RFC]

As an environmental lawyer, I've spent years working on municipal drinking water systems. The standards are very strenuous (except in Flint, Michigan). Drink deeply. Bottled water is a joke, a waste of money, and an environmental embarrassment.

[Bwana]

Growing up in Chicago, the tap water was awesome and my general trust of tap water seems to be much higher than some people I know.

My water here is Texas is very hard (no softener in our house...yet), and it doesn't bother me but my wife wont drink it.

If I'm drinking bottled water, it's Ozarka only!

[charliedid]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL5O_9HnN4E

[verticaldoug]

This is a photo of the first public water fountain in London- Holborn Hill 1859.
It was built on the viaduct after London passed the sewers act which called for water to be filtered after the earlier cholera epidemics.

It isn't like the US has sudden epidemics of cholera, polio etc. You question just shows how effective the big beverage companies - Pepsi, Coke, Nestle have been at convincing the public that tap water is bad.

When I was a kid, we had public water fountains everywhere. Lately, it seems more and more public spaces are being built without access to public water fountains. (When is the last time you saw a sports stadium with public water fountains built with tax payer money)

If you are afraid of drinking public tap water in the US, then either something is horribly wrong with US government, or you have been sold a bill of goods from a rent-seeking corporations.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On a side note, the water fountain is on the corner of Newgate and Giltspur by St Sepulchre-without-Newgate which has the last executioner bell in London. When you visit St Paul's, it is worth a side trip.

All you that in the condemned hole do lie,
Prepare you for tomorrow you shall die;
Watch all and pray: the hour is drawing near
That you before the Almighty must appear;
Examine well yourselves in time repent,
That you may not to eternal flames be sent.
And when St. Sepulchre’s Bell in the morning tolls
The Lord above have mercy on your soul.

[Black Dog]

As an environmental lawyer, I've spent years working on municipal drinking water systems. The standards are very strenuous (except in Flint, Michigan). Drink deeply. Bottled water is a joke, a waste of money, and an environmental embarrassment.

This.

Here in Canada municipal drinking water is held to a higher regulatory standard than bottled water. Bottled water is an absolute marketing con job that is a massive waste of resources. I find it beyond ridiculous that we have the cleanest and cheapest water on earth and yet we drink bottled water at a massive cost when most of the world has water insecurity.

[Schmed]

One of the biggest reasons I won't live anywhere else than Colorado Springs. The tap water is amazing here.
.

Colo Springs has some of the best (lowest TDS / dissolved minerals) water I've ever seen. Most of Denver has tap water with about 200 ppm TDS. Colorado Springs is 45 ppm. Commerce City is 800 ppm. Vail is 275 ppm.

But... those are dissolved minerals, so "best" is subjective. Colorado Springs water won't give you much magnesium, calcium, etc. But it tastes good!

BTW, I don't see a benefit in filtering your water unless there's something specific that you are trying to remove. Lead, arsenic, pesticides, chlorine all go through a sediment filter. A carbon filter will remove chlorine and some pesticides, so that might be worth while.

[Schmed]

As an environmental lawyer, I've spent years working on municipal drinking water systems. The standards are very strenuous (except in Flint, Michigan). Drink deeply. Bottled water is a joke, a waste of money, and an environmental embarrassment.

Aren't Flint standards the same as anywhere else, as the EPA sets the standards and municipalities have to follow them (self-regulated, however).

[paredown]

My only complaint with tap water is the chlorine taste--worse in some locales than others. We use a Brita at home, and I used to travel with a portable Brita.

Like the OP we also have our own reusable WB that we carry.

That said, when we occasionally drink bottled, we make sure that our empties get recycled--taking them home if there is no obvious place while out and about. That's the real crime--less than 25% of the bottles are....

[MattTuck]

If you are traveling, why would you be concerned about the environmental impact of bottled water anymore than that of any other bottled drink (iced tea, soda, beer, etc.)?

It is a product you want in a convenient container. You may feel it is a rip-off, but I don't see how it is environmentally worse than other plastic bottles.

That said, Flint is not the only municipality with drinking water problems. Many systems are approaching end of projected life and financially strapped municipalities are likely to delay replacement.

PS. Aquafina is not a national produce. It is owned by Pepsi, I believe, and is bottled from filtered tap water at Pepsi bottling plants around the country.

[ColonelJLloyd]

My city's tap water is top shelf by all accounts. I drink it straight from the tap and make my ice without filtration. By and large the US has very high quality tap water.

[witcombusa]

Colo Springs has some of the best (lowest TDS / dissolved minerals) water I've ever seen. Most of Denver has tap water with about 200 ppm TDS. Colorado Springs is 45 ppm. Commerce City is 800 ppm. Vail is 275 ppm.

But... those are dissolved minerals, so "best" is subjective. Colorado Springs water won't give you much magnesium, calcium, etc. But it tastes good!

BTW, I don't see a benefit in filtering your water unless there's something specific that you are trying to remove. Lead, arsenic, pesticides, chlorine all go through a sediment filter. A carbon filter will remove chlorine and some pesticides, so that might be worth while.

Oh, like let's say fluoride added by the municipal water companies. :no:

http://www.nofluoride.com/food_and_water.cfm

[Schmed]

Aquafina, and most other bottled waters are purified, not just filtered. They use reverse osmosis to remove most of the minerals (99% ish), ozonate (to kill bacteria, etc.), then add some minerals back in for taste (magnesium, etc.).

I work with some of these plants. Some are much cleaner than others.

I don't hesitate to drink their waters, but I drink out of the tap.

Also - if you want to save the cost of a Brita, but remove chlorine taste, fill a pitcher with tap water, put it in the fridge. In hours/days, the chlorine dissipates and you get "free" chlorine-free water!

[Black Dog]

Oh, like let's say fluoride added by the municipal water companies. :no:

http://www.nofluoride.com/food_and_water.cfm

You mean the same fluoride that exists in many natural aquifers and that people have been drinking from for hundreds of years with no long term health effects?

[Schmed]

Oh, like let's say fluoride added by the municipal water companies. :no:

http://www.nofluoride.com/food_and_water.cfm

Fluoride isn't removed by sediment filters or carbon filters. Need RO for that.

(by the way, that link contains a whole crap ton of junk science. Flat out scare tactics. Comparing fluorine to fluoride is just plain stupid, for example. Chlorine and chloride are very different as to health affects. "Fluorine is the active ingredient in Sarin gas" is another way to scare people, but a ridiculous comment).

[Seramount]

I just retired from 15 years as a regulator in the Texas public drinking water section.

bottom line is that, at least in this state, municipal systems produce good quality water. they routinely test for biological / chemical contamination, monitor disinfectant residuals, and conduct water line flushing programs.

for example, the City of Houston collects almost 800 bacteriological samples per month.

small systems are much more problematic...convenience stores, mobile home parks, etc can be operated by people with no particular expertise and will often cut corners to save money, effort.

the state conducts oversight of test results, conducts periodic on-site inspections of every system, and provides assistance to systems experiencing water quality issues.

bottle water is a complete joke. I could provide a list of bottlers whose 'pristine source' is not a mountain stream or glacier but rather a municipal water system. they usually just run tap water thru an RO system, add some minerals for flavor and charge a premium price to gullible consumers.

then there's the ridiculous environmental impact from the mfg of billions of plastic bottles and transporting them using fossil fuels.

at my house, I simply use an activated carbon filter to knock out the chlorine. the water tastes fine.

[benb]

Tap water is held to a higher standard than bottled water in the US too.

You can find the test data for your local water supply, I have checked it periodically. At least here I also get letters from DPW in the mail telling me what is going on with the water supply. And you can order tests on your water too.

Good luck getting any of that for bottled water.

Hell I have read some bottled water is just tap water in a plastic bottle to separate fools from their money.

Only time I get bottled water for the most part is airports where it's about the only choice.

I do like using a filter. The refrigerator ones have been less of a PITA IMO than stuff like the Brita, but my tap water tastes great as is anyway.

[dave thompson]

I'd rather drink tap from Mexico City than from NJ...:eek: :D

In Mexico City hotels there are 3 water taps in the rooms; hot, cold and drinking. The water there is truly awful and even so, getting harder and harder to get because of the rapidly increasing population, about 25 million which is nearly 20% of total population of the country of Mexico!

Jerseys water must be really bad!

[echappist]

not the part of NJ where i live (>30 miles from NYC)

worst water i've ever had was in Tampa. Tasted foul...

I trust most tap water sources, but what i don't trust are the plumbing in some of the older houses. As its etymological root would suggest, plumbing contains certain amount of plumbo (aka Pb or lead), so there's that for the older plumbing (the copper pipes contain certain amount of lead).

Still, i filter my water to make it softer. I know for a fact that there was a lot of dissolved particles from the tap water source in my apartment in Arlington VA. It actually registered as somewhat hard when i tested it. The same wasn't true for tap water here in NJ.

That said, water filters create their own special type of non-recyclable waste...

[Jaybee]

This a topic near and dear to my heart - I clean up environmental pollution for a living, and my wife works in our municipal water quality department.

concerns of Flint-like scenarios are real, but shouldn't be overinflated into a panic. Nearly every municipal water system contains lead piping in some quantity, and a change in the chemistry of the water running through those pipes could drive leaching into the water supply. The good news is that most municipal utilities are scared to death of this scenario, have good competent administrators, engineers and scientists thinking about and preparing for scenarios where water supply is changing, and are constantly testing, retesting and verifying the quality of what they are delivering. I do not worry about what I drink out of the tap.

[Cloozoe]

I'm more than a touch less sanguine than many here, although I've been known to drink out of a likely parasite-ridden stream when fishing if thirsty enough.

Regulations are only as good as the testing and enforcement behind them. That's where the executive branch comes in. Any bets as to which way that wind's blowing?

[HenryA]

When I travel I'll try the local water. If it tastes good I drink it. Not so good, I might buy some bottled.

At home we have a well and I love that there are no chemicals to smell or taste.

[daker13]

Yes, it's true that tap water is tested and not all bottled water is, and that's certainly something to be aware of. My state has great water, for the most part, but the town where I live gets water from Massachusetts that does not test so well. The local water utility is corrupt and an embarrassment. (The mind-your-own-business attitude of the crony water utility people probably bothers me more than the health concerns, to be honest.)

I think it's silly to treat Flint as an anomaly, as if all the water supplies in the US are perfect. It depends where you are.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/09/us/regulatory-gaps-leave-unsafe-lead-levels-in-water-nationwide.html

For drinking water, I get the big bottles delivered from a local natural spring. It tastes great, it's tested, it's not expensive, and it's a local company.

[Schmed]

Regulations are only as good as the testing and enforcement behind them. That's where the executive branch comes in. Any bets as to which way that wind's blowing?

Well.... the previous admin didn't quite prevent Flint from happening, so there's a bit of a hole in your theory.

There's a lot of self-reporting and monitoring, and there's no way any executive branch could oversee every single municipality's water treatment program.

As such, there's a bit of trust that we all place in our tap water treaters, and that was destroyed in Flint. That whole mess could have been prevented, too. Sad.

[Cloozoe]

Well.... the previous admin didn't quite prevent Flint from happening, so there's a bit of a hole in your theory.

There's a lot of self-reporting and monitoring, and there's no way any executive branch could oversee every single municipality's water treatment program.

As such, there's a bit of trust that we all place in our tap water treaters, and that was destroyed in Flint. That whole mess could have been prevented, too. Sad.

Ha! Good one! Dang liberals!

Actually I meant executive branch -- lower case-- whether local, state or federal -- as opposed to legislative. I didn't really expect Trump to go wandering the nation personally inspecting every well...honest! Nor do I expect his or anybody else's minions could be flawless in execution.

If there's political desire, adequate money allocated, and a respect for science and expertise, the water supply will continue to be protected; if there isn't, it won't.

[Schmed]

If there's political desire, adequate money allocated, and a respect for science and expertise, the water supply will continue to be protected; if there isn't, it won't.

As best as it can, I suppose. So hard to be 100% with water quality and the millions (?) of small water treatment operators. But... there is a lot of training and testing, so it's about all we can do. I saw my little municipality testing one of the hydrants near my house. Using a $40 chlorine test kit. The chlorine test kit I use is $450. :eek:

[rounder]

When I travel I'll try the local water. If it tastes good I drink it. Not so good, I might buy some bottled.

At home we have a well and I love that there are no chemicals to smell or taste.

Same here. I travel with my job, Usually, the water tastes fine. If it tasted bad, or if I had a reason to believe that the water was not good, I would buy some. That does not happen very often.

[RFC]

Aren't Flint standards the same as anywhere else, as the EPA sets the standards and municipalities have to follow them (self-regulated, however).

Yes, I was just making a bad environmental joke. Flint is, obviously, in enormous violation of drinking water standards.

[RFC]

Aquafina, and most other bottled waters are purified, not just filtered. They use reverse osmosis to remove most of the minerals (99% ish), ozonate (to kill bacteria, etc.), then add some minerals back in for taste (magnesium, etc.).

I work with some of these plants. Some are much cleaner than others.

I don't hesitate to drink their waters, but I drink out of the tap.

Also - if you want to save the cost of a Brita, but remove chlorine taste, fill a pitcher with tap water, put it in the fridge. In hours/days, the chlorine dissipates and you get "free" chlorine-free water!

And then you are ready to make cold brew coffee!

[RFC]

This a topic near and dear to my heart - I clean up environmental pollution for a living, and my wife works in our municipal water quality department.

concerns of Flint-like scenarios are real, but shouldn't be overinflated into a panic. Nearly every municipal water system contains lead piping in some quantity, and a change in the chemistry of the water running through those pipes could drive leaching into the water supply. The good news is that most municipal utilities are scared to death of this scenario, have good competent administrators, engineers and scientists thinking about and preparing for scenarios where water supply is changing, and are constantly testing, retesting and verifying the quality of what they are delivering. I do not worry about what I drink out of the tap.

+1 I've lived among the noble savage and I know your ways!

[Hilltopperny]

I'll jump in here and say that there are plenty of places in my state of New York alone where I wouldn't touch the tap water. Lots of pfoa contamination in places like Hoosick Falls and I'm willing to bet that this is a problem in all kinds of post industrial cities and towns whose infrastructures have been neglected for the past 85 years.

I have a well and there are a lot of natural springs in my area. I prefer those to the old municipal water in my prior home. Some are better than others, but there are some places where the old pipes and such haven't been changed in far too long.

[Tony T]

off to the bar, at least i'm certain that the Dewars wont kill me!

“I don't drink water. Fish fućk in it.” — W.C. Fields
Also Evian spelled backwards is….

[gallant]

I used to live in Los Angeles and could not drink the tap water without it being filtered beforehand. Ideally with reverse osmosis and if not with a Brita filter. I'm not in San Francisco and the water tastes much better. Although, I still filter when possible.

[Peter B]

The water that comes from my tap originates in a deep hole in the ground about 150' from my front door. Been drinking it raw for 18 years. Being on locally high ground I don't fear neighborly contamination. There's a nice spring several miles up the road that delivers really tasty water too. Been drinking from it for just as long. Thankfully we've gotten about 70" of rainfall this year so both sources should continue to flow for another year!

[estilley]

Tap water in the PNW is better than any bottled water out there.

Never really had a filter and will drink straight out of any faucet.

None of that pesky fluoride stuff either!

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2013/05/portland_fluoride_for_the_four.html

[tumbler]

Flew here on a giant fuel burning aircraft, but this empty plastic bottle really bothers me...?

Your options for traveling long distances in any reasonable amount of time all but necessitate the use of that fuel burning aircraft. Your options for clean drinking water in the US often do not require a plastic bottle, 70% of which are never recycled and will sit in a landfill for hundreds of years.

I drink bottled water when I need to or it's the only option, but I think it's good for people to be aware of their options and the impact of those options and not consume it unnecessarily if there is perfectly safe tap water available.

[SpokeValley]

I agree that almost all of the municipal water I've tried (I travel nationally and frequently) is pretty good. The exception is Las Vegas...tastes terrible. I usually buy one liter bottle and refill it in the hotel fitness center. Usually bottled and free.

[kingpin75s]

Not a fan of bottled water on many levels.

Tap water is ok depending on your area. Taste is the issue in some areas.

Not a fan of Britta filters, I am a big fan of running my tap water through my Berkey.

http://www.bigberkeywaterfilters.com/berkey-water-filters.html

[oldpotatoe]

Oh, like let's say fluoride added by the municipal water companies. :no:

http://www.nofluoride.com/food_and_water.cfm

And if you drink water with govt floride, the govt can track you....:confused:

-forehead slap.

[witcombusa]

And if you drink water with govt floride, the govt can track you....:confused:

-forehead slap.

No Peter, that what your smartphone is for...

[Seramount]

as a cave diver, I've been in many locations where you can be cruising along in a pristine aquifer, come around a corner and encounter a well casing...

that's all fine and good, people think they're accessing a pure source of water...but, go another 100 yards and you'll find a pile of trash (paint cans, roofing materials, appliances, household garbage, etc.) that the local cretins have tossed into a sinkhole.

and in some instances, it's the landowner who owns the well that's dumping the crap...

some people can't quite connect the dots...